Alright everybody,Here are the new Terms of Service for the IGN boards. Not a ton of changes, just some ironing out of grey areas. Please familiarize yourself with these terms and make sure you understand them. Basically in a nutshell, we are being more lenient on a number of things, but now there is a clear line of what you can and can't do. I love the boards, I love the Vesti, I love the fun and if you know me, you know I'm all for craziness... But please follow the rules here and understand that some ban times have increased for good reason. If you don't want to incur an excessive ban... it's simple, don't break the rules.The rules are set in stone and will be for now, but as always we reserve the right to change them, and I'm always open to suggestions. I'll be here on this thread for a few hours if you have any questions.-SeanThe New TOS

StandardsThese are private forums. By registering at the IGN Message Boards, users agree that any post deemed inappropriate may be removed at the sole discretion of IGN. IGN also has the right, at its sole discretion, to revoke board privileges at any time without notice or reason. In simple terms: if you break the rules, you will be banned. Exploiting loopholes to circumvent rules will also result in a ban. (We're watching you, you sneaky snakes.)

IGN is not responsible for messages posted on the IGN Boards or the content therein. Unless expressly stated otherwise, this includes messages posted by IGN personnel, agents, representatives et al. IGN reserves the right to reveal users' personal information to third parties in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any message posted by said user.

Flaming, Bashing, Trolling, and SpamWhile it’s okay to have disagreements in discussions, name calling or other personal attacks will not be tolerated and will result in a ban. Trolling is defined as posting anything specifically designed to attract a negative reaction from an individual or group. Not all negative opinions are automatically considered trolling, but positive discussions are encouraged. Advertising or excessive spamming or bumping of any thread is not permitted, and will result in a 24hr ban for each offense. Everyone is trying to drive their post counts up, and active contributions to discussion will always be welcomed. Determination of flaming, trolling, and spam posts will be made at the discretion of mods.

Profanity

Use of profanity as personal expression, in pictures, or in text, is allowed on the IGN boards. However, any profanity used will be subject to guidelines. Racial slurs or Hate Speech are not allowed and any person caught using them will be banned. Explicitly sexual or profane descriptions and writing are not allowed. (The IGN Boards are not your own personal Penthouse forums.) Profanity directed in an attack against another user is subject to the same considerations as flaming and trolling (see above). Usernames with profanity are prohibited.

Pornography, Pedophilia & Sexually Explicit Content

Absolutely no forms of pornography are allowed on the boards. Images that contain sexual acts, pubic hair, female nipples, bare bottoms, bodily fluids or genitals that are in any way visible, even though clothing, are not permitted. We allow mature discussions of sexuality and pornography, but these discussions must remain mature at all times. If you plan on starting a sexual discussion, please do not use any sexually explicit or profane wording in the subject line. Any posts, pictures, jokes, or discussions with a clear intent to sexualize children, including sexually suggestive photos of anyone seemingly under the age of 18 will incur a permanent ban from the IGN Boards. If you are warned more than once about breaking our rules on pornography, you will be banned for 10 days. On your third offense, you will be banned permanently.

Piracy, ROMs, Warez, Copyrighted Material and Altering Board Code

IGN has a very strict policy against piracy and the illegal use of copyrighted material. Encouraging software or media piracy, including linking to or giving information about any site that seeks to distribute illegal software or media, or any site seeking help to circumvent any copyright laws, piracy is grounds for an immediate 1 week ban. This goes for all copyrighted material, including but not limited to games, movies, music, magazines, and videos. General discussions about customizing hardware, emulators, custom firmware, etc. are fine. Users can talk about jail-breaking for reasons unrelated to piracy, however creating or providing links to jail-breaking, how-to pages is also grounds for an immediate 1 week ban. IGN Boards users agree not to post any material that is protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right without the express permission of the owner(s) of said copyright, trademark or other proprietary right. Any content from outside locations is permitted as long as it abides by their (and our) permissions.Altering or changing IGN code and/or exploiting code bugs for purposes other than what the message boards were intended to do is prohibited. On a similar note, using automatic scripts on any part of IGN is also not permitted. Hacking, altering board code, exploiting code bugs and using scripts are all grounds for an immediate and permanent ban.

You may not impersonate another board member or create an account specifically for the purpose of provoking another user or group of users. Accessing or using someone else's account or attempting to access another user's account is strictly prohibited, and will result in a permanent ban. You are responsible for your account. If somebody uses your account and gets banned, you are responsible unless there is IP proof that another user has maliciously used your account. , In this case you will not be punished, however you will need to create a new account for security reasons. If you have an old account that was lost during a board changeover, send the acting community manager a private message and he or she will assist you.Revealing users' personal information (without their consent), it will result in your account being banned for one week. If you repeat this offense, you will be banned for one month. If you are caught posting others'personal information more than twice, you will be permanently banned.

Off-Topic Posts and Spoilers

Off-topic posts will be deleted or moved to the appropriate board. Excessively posting off topic content or hijacking and driving a discussion off topic will result in a warning. After your first warning you will be banned from the boards for 24 hours for every additional offense.

Be considerate of the other users who may not have seen a movie or played a game that you're talking about. When a game, movie or book is released, please wait sixth months before discussing spoiler content without using a spoiler tag. Posting a spoiler without the spoiler tag will result in a warning on your first offense, a 48hr ban for the second offense and a week long ban for every additional offense. IGN boards feature Spoiler Tags mark-up code: [ spoilers ] [ /spoilers ] or [ spoilers=text ] [ /spoilers ] - please use it.

Bans

Ban times will be increased for repeat offenses. Bans are private matters and are NOT discussed publicly. We only will discuss the nature, reason, and length of a ban with the user banned. If you log onto the IGN message boards and receive a message that you have been banned, please note the reason and time and wait for the ban to end. Or if you believe the ban is in error, please send a PM to a moderator and he or she will assist you from there. Your ban will then go through a review process and you will be notified within 7 days of the review's outcome. It is standard practice on IGN to increase ban times for repeat offenders, however bans will now cap themselves at a one month maximum unless it is decided that a user is permanently banned, or time is added to a ban for circumvention. Taking any action while banned other than privately disputing a ban claim (including posting/liking/messaging other users) on an alternate user name is not permitted, and will result in an extension of the current ban.

ModerationAny form of moderator harassment including insults, publicly failing to heed a moderators warning, or reposting a thread that was locked/removed will result in a ban or ban extension. If you have a question about a moderator’s decision, please send a PM to a moderator and he/she will review the decision with the Boards Administrator and Mod Community.

Questionable Content

Since we can't have a rule to cover everything, this is the rule to, well, cover everything. These are public boards, so act like you would if you were in a public place. (A nice place!) These issues are left to the discretion of individual moderators, but may include any material that is knowingly false and/or defamatory, misleading, spammy, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, sexist, obscene, racist, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, that otherwise violates any law, or that encourages conduct constituting a criminal offense. Asking for or offering any of the material listed above is also out not permitted.

Suggestions

If you have any ideas on how to improve the boards, MyIGN or the TOS, please send the acting community manager a PM.

These issues are left to the discretion of individual moderators, but may include any material that is knowingly false and/or defamatory, misleading, spammy, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, sexist, obscene, racist, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, that otherwise violates any law, or that encourages conduct constituting a criminal offense.

Not that many have. At least not more than normal. Some have been banned for flaming, but otherwise it's been mostly the same. The quality of posting on there has fallen a bit though. I expect that will change once the novelty of it gets old.